and superior to nature, and still endeavors, by form, ceremony,
supplication, hypocrisy, to obtain its aid. His best energies have been
wasted in the service of this phantom. The horrors of witchcraft were
all born of an ignorant belief in the existence of a totally depraved
being superior to nature, acting in perfect independence of her laws;
and all religious superstition has had for its basis a belief in at
least two beings, one good and the other bad, both of whom could
arbitrarily change the order of the universe. The history of religion
is simply the story of man's efforts in all ages to avoid one of these
powers and to pacify the other. Both powers have inspired little else
than abject fear. The cold, calculating sneer of the devil, and the
frown of God, were equally terrible. In any event, man's fate was to be
arbitrarily fixed forever by an unknown power superior to all law, and
to all fact. Until this belief is thrown aside, man must consider
himself the slave of phantom masters--neither of whom promise liberty in
this world nor in the next.

Man must learn to rely upon himself. Reading bibles will not protect
him from the blasts of winter, but houses, fires, and clothing will. To
prevent famine, one plow is worth a million sermons, and even patent
medicines will cure more diseases than all the prayers uttered since the
beginning of the world.

Although many eminent men have endeavored to harmonize necessity and
free will, the existence of evil, and the infinite power and goodness of
God, they have succeeded only in producing learned and ingenious
failures. Immense efforts have been made to reconcile ideas utterly
inconsistent with the facts by which we are surrounded, and all persons
who have failed to perceive the pretended reconciliation, have been
denounced as infidels, atheists and scoffers. The whole power of the